This disclosure relates to an amusement ride and video game. Both rides and video games provide entertainment to players through the excitement and thrills created in part by the movement of a ride vehicle through an attraction. Video games involving shooting are also popular games of skill.
Amusement rides and shooting games have been combined into amusement systems. Passengers sit in a vehicle, which moves through a ride attraction. The passengers are provided with simulated weapons, for shooting at various targets within the attraction. The simulated weapons typically project a light beam such as a laser beam, which is detected by sensors in the targets, and this defines a hit or other variation as determined by the rules of the amusement ride and game, which is part of the ride. Players accumulate points, rewards or the like.
Video games are a form of entertainment in a variety of forms, including: standalone video game systems, game cartridge systems connected to television sets, and video game software for personal computers. Simulated games typically allow a video game player to control the actions of a simulated participant on a video game screen by manipulating various knobs, buttons, joysticks, trackballs, and keyboards.
Video game players typically interact with and compete against simulated opponents on a simulated course, thereby setting an artificial standard of performance, which may be quite different from the standard of performance required to complete in a amusement park or theme park ride or activity competitive event. Rather than competing against each other directly, video game players typically compete against simulated opponents, and then compare scores against these simulated opponents with other video game players.
Some video games are played across multiple computers that are connected together by a computer network. These networks can connect geographically distributed computer systems linked by cross-country computer networks. These systems allow multiple players at individual computers to participate and compete in the same simulated video game. Players are able to compete against each other as well as simulated opponents. Although these systems allow video game players to directly compete against each other, they are generally competitive on the same video game platform, namely with the same criteria and the same video game environment.
There is a need to provide an enhanced entertainment experience for amusement ride participants and video game players.